Be patient, Tangs can rewarding

Xanthurum · Sep 7, 2018

I’m sure most of us have heard that nothing good happens fast in this hobby. This can be especially true with many things like SPS problems, fish diseases and of course you can’t mention fish disease without also talking about Tangs. Anyway I’m not here to preach about QT or anything like that I want to share what it took to get my current group of tangs to coexist.

I have been doing saltwater for over 20 years and have always been intrigued by these surgeons of the sea to the point that I read everything I can get my hands on about them. I know most by their common and scientific names although I will admit I have probably forgotten some over the years. So I restarted my tank and was going about getting this fish and that fish until it was time for my favorites, the most loved of all saltwater fish, at least by me, TANGS!

I asked my local store to get me the first few on the list but and sourced the other guys and went about attempting to add them in the proper order. I had asked for a hybrid Gold Rim and Achilles but somehow a mistake was made and I ended up with a Gold Rim/Powder Blue. No biggie since it was great looking and seemingly a puppy dog while in QT with the Purple. They made it to the DT and then I acquired a Gem a Whitetail Bristletooth and an Achilles. After the QT process I introduced all 3 at the same time and expected some fighting but was shocked at just how bad it was between the PB hybrid and the Achilles.

I’ve seen some aggression in my days but nothing like what was going on I mean huge gashes and shredded fins on both so I used egg crate to separate them. After 1 week I tried them again and almost immediately it was obvious they weren’t going to get along so the divider came back out. Another 2 weeks of separation and they still hadn’t gotten used to seeing each other and not trying to kill each other so the PB hybrid was removed and placed in the refugium for 2 weeks. The Achilles had recovered along with the hybrid so I gave it another try. They did great for about an hour and then it was all out war, again. In went the tank divider and I started coming up with a plan on what to do , I mean who goes and who stays? All the other tangs got along with both but both did not get along with each other. While postponing and procrastinating I let them be divided as I didn’t want to get rid of either but one would most likely have to go because Powder Blues have been called Powder Kegs and A Killies aren’t much sweeter. I finally decided that the Achilles was going to stay and started looking for a new home for the PB hybrid when I occurred to me they had been separated for nearly 2 months. When I realized this I began to watch them and realized neither one seemed to care about the other anymore so I took out the divider and to my surprise......they don’t hate each other anymore. Let’s be clear they don’t like each other but they tolerate each other and it seems, at least for now I have the group settled in.

Moral of the story is be patient. It may take 3.5 months but it might be worth it in the end. Terrible pic time.

Dsnakes · Sep 7, 2018

That’s great they finally got over it. Hopefully for good. How large is your system? I would love to hear and see more of it

Jesterrace · Sep 8, 2018

Wish my experience was as good, I only had one tang but it got progressively worse with my CB Dwarf Angel. I had no choice but to get rid of it as it was causing physical damage to the poor CB. I did have a similar experience with my Melanurus and Leopard Wrasse. For 2 weeks the Melanurus was a complete jerk to the Leopard and even kept it in the sand for a couple of days. Fortunately my Leopard Wrasse is bolder than average and even pushed back a bit at the Melanurus. The Melanurus is still the dominant wrasse but they pretty much coexist now.

TessGlo · Sep 8, 2018

Great to see that it is possible. How big is your tank, wondering if that also helped? Interesting about how the achiles and hybrid powder sorted it out with each other. Good idea to start your tank with the ability to put a divider in at the beginning in case things go south, going to remember that

Xanthurum · Sep 10, 2018

Full disclosure my tank is smaller than it should be in order to house an Achilles. I intended on keeping an Achilles hybrid so I specifically designed the tank around doing so, I had one last year but lost it in attempt to fix some tank issues. I tried to get another but couldn’t find one so I have been considering getting a larger tank since i feel things would be more suitable for everyone.

Current tank is Red Sea 650S which is about 175 gallons. Actual tank dimensions excluding the back compartment is 62.5L x 22W x 25H. The tank is very open as far as aquascape with tons of flow provided by the 4 sicce 2.0 pumps in the back wall, 2 MP40’s mounted on each end and a Vectra M1 return pump. I have a HUGE sump that has a refugium built in that measures 60x20x20. I’m debating on a new tank that would add a lot more room, 84x28x26. All of my equipment could be switched over very easily so it’s just a matter of making it happen.

TessGlo said:
Great to see that it is possible. How big is your tank, wondering if that also helped? Interesting about how the achiles and hybrid powder sorted it out with each other. Good idea to start your tank with the ability to put a divider in at the beginning in case things go south, going to remember that

I have learned many things along the way in this hobby so the ability to separate problems are always nice. I also have held off on corals until I know all my fish are completely disease free. They all went thru QT but in the event that something made it to the display I was willing to treat the entire DT. I have a coral system setup and any corals or inverts will spend 3 months in that system prior to making it to the DT. I won’t even put a single fish in the coral tank to eliminate the chance of any contamination.